From the
beginning of the 20th century, rocket technology evolved into two major
forms: wingless ballistic vehicles, flying beyond the atmosphere like
a shell from a cannon and cruise missiles, relying on wings to fly within
the atmosphere.

Above: A Tupolev-160, Tu-160, jet bomber was one of several Russian carriers of cruise missiles at the beginning of the 21st century.

During the
arm race of the 1950s, these two breeds of rockets competed to achieve
intercontinental range, with ballistic missiles eventually becoming the
ultimate strategic weapon of the Cold War. In its turn, the cruise missile
evolved into tactical weapon, designed to hit land and sea targets.

In the 1960s,
the Soviet navy adopted cruise missiles to counteract a perceived
threat from the US Navy. Despite its purely military applications, cruise
missile technology stimulated development in several other fields, including
the space program. In the Soviet Union, challenges associated with the
targeting of long-range cruise missiles justified the creation of space-based guidance systems and even prompted development of manned military
outposts in space.

In the post-Soviet period, aircraft-based cruise missiles continued playing a strategic role in the Russian armed forces. In 2011, the Ministry of Defense planned to purchase 20 such vehicles.

In October
1944, the remnants of a German V-1 cruise missile shot down over London
arrived in Moscow courtesy of the British allies. On June 14 of the same
year, Minister of Aviation Industry Shakhurin and Marshal of Artillery
Novikov accompanied young engineer Vladimir Chelomei
to the Kremlin for a meeting with Malenkov, Stalin's Deputy responsible
for the aviation industry.

Malenkov
asked Chelomei, who previously had conducted independent research in the
field of cruise missiles, about the possibility of duplicating the German
V-1. Chelomei replied with an impressive speech, advocating the enormous
potential of this kind of technology.

Yaroslav
Golovanov quoted Chelomei (18)
as saying that two days after the meeting with Malenkov, he had a 100-person-strong
collective formed within TsIAM and designated Department 6.

On September
17, 1944, (according to another source -- on September 19 (29)),
Chelomei was appointed a chief designer of the aviation plant No. 51,
until that time a part of the production facilities of the late Nikolai
Polikarpov, a renowned airplane designer.

By the end
of 1944, Chelomei had reproduced the German engine and in the first half
of 1945 he had designed a similar cruise missile, 10Kh, which apparently
was never mass-produced but was tested in flight after launch from a Pe-8
bomber. Like Korolev, Chelomei made a trip
to Germany searching for related technology.

Later, Chelomei
proposed the Soviet Air Force new versions of his cruise missiles -- 14Kh
and 16Kh -- designed for launch in midair from long-range bombers like
Pe-8 and Tu-4. Ground based and navy versions of the same cruise missiles,
known as 10 KhN and 10KhM, were also under development.

All projects
faced enormous problems with flight control systems, which took years
to solve. By 1953, the Air Force had grown skeptical of such weapons.
(27)

By that time,
Artem Mikoyan, the chief-designer of Soviet MIG fighter jets, who employed
Sergei Beriya, the son of Stalin's security chief, proposed a competing
project of a cruise missile. As a result, in February 1953, just weeks
before his death, Joseph Stalin signed a decree, making Plant No. 51 and
its design bureau a branch of Mikoyan's OKB-155.

Chelomei
lost his position as chief designer and was left with his professorship
at the Moscow High Technical School (MVTU).

New beginning

The death
of Stalin on March 1, 1953, essentially brought Malenkov to power in the
USSR. He remembered the young designer, and helped him rebuild his collective.

On June 9,
1954, the Ministry of Aviation Industry, MAP, issued a decree, creating
the Special Design Group (SKG-10), which was based at Plant No. 500 in
the town of Tushino, near Moscow. Former employees of Plant No. 51, as
well as a group of young engineers made the new 80-member team of SKG-10.

Chelomei
started promoting his winged missiles for Navy use, particularly for submarines.
The projected missile, designated P-5, featured folding wings, which would
deploy automatically in midair after the launch from the launch container
under its own power.

During the
Summer of 1955, Chelomei got a phone call from the president of the Academy
of Sciences, Mastislav Keldush, who informed him that the decision had
been made to build a new enterprise for the implementation of Chelomei's
proposals on submarine-launched cruise missiles.

The new organization,
based in the town of Reutov, just east of Moscow, initially occupied a
single brick building of the Reutov Mechanical Plant, known to the residents
as the "drunken plant." Chelomei had to survive harsh competition
to place his missiles onboard Soviet submarines. Such experienced aviation
designers as Mikoyan, Iluyshin and Beriev, all proposed alternative designs
of long-range cruise missiles. Beriev's design bureau, based in Taganrog,
was developing the P-10 cruise missile, as a direct competitor to Chelomei's
P-5. (73)

In addition,
during 1958-1971, the design bureau led by A. Ya. Bereznyak successfully
developed surface-based short range missiles, such as the land and sea-based
KSR-11 and KSR-5 missiles, air-launched KRM, Kh-22 and Kh-55 missiles
and ground-based P-15 missile. (129)

Nevertheless,
by mid-1950s, Chelomei's cruise missiles had won a long-range "niche"
in the Soviet navy, while Beriev's P-10 project was canceled. That was
the beginning of Chelomei's personal ascent as well as that of his OKB-52,
which culminated during Khrushchev's years.

P-5 and
others

The 4,300-kilogram
P-5 missile, introduced in 1959, had a range of 500 kilometers and a speed
of 1,250 kilometers per hour. It carried a 1,000-kilogram warhead.

For the rest
of the 20th century, the development center founded by Vladimir
Chelomei and later renamed NPO Mashinostroenia, continued with follow-on
generations of long-range cruise missiles, including the P-5D, P-6, P-7,
C-6, P-35, Ametist, Malakhit, Bazalt, Granit, Progress, Vulkan, Meteorit
and Yakhont.

The P-5 and
P-5D missiles were adopted by the Soviet navy, while a modification, known
as C-5, was offered to the ground forces. (130)
The P-6 missile was adopted for the armament of submarines in 1962.

In 1959,
OKB-52 started development of the Ametist, the world's first cruise missile
capable of taking off from a submerged submarine. The rocket was equipped
with a solid-propellant engine and had a range of 80 kilometers. In 1967,
the first submarine with the Ametist missiles had been deployed and the
system was considered operational in 1968.

More advanced,
the Malakhit missile, was introduced in 1972. As its predecessor, the
new vehicle used solid-propellant engine, but had an increased range and
could be deployed on submarines, as well as on surface ships. The Granit
missile was also designed for underwater and surface launch.

The P-35
cruise missile was developed specifically for the coastal defense complex,
known as Redut.

A 2,500-kilogram
Yakhont missile, equipped with a ramjet engine, was designed for surface
and air launch. The version designed for surface launch was also equipped
with a so-called launching-accelerator stage, burning solid fuel. Depending
on the launch platform, the Yakhont had a range of 120 to 300 kilometers
and a speed of 750 meters per second. It was capable of carrying 200 kilogram
of explosives. (132)

In total,
NPO Mash built 20 weapon systems, or 60 percent of all the anti-ship missiles
carried by the Russian navy in the 1990s.

Some of the
newest cruise missiles, developed at NPO Mashinostroenia, were exported
to India at the beginning of the 21st century. (22)

Recent
developments:

2001 July:
According
to an article published in the Washington Times, sometimes in the middle of
July, Russia conducted an unannounced test of a new scramjet-powered missile,
which, reportedly was tracked by US radars, as it hit an impact range
at Kamchatka Peninsula (apparently Kura range). The newspaper claimed
that the cruise missile was launched on top of the SS-25 (Topol) ICBM
and after reaching an apogee of its trajectory separated from the booster
stage reentered the atmosphere and continued flying toward the target.
According to the newspaper, the launch took place in "central Russia,"
which is probably Plesetsk. The Washington
Times report apparently reached Russia in misinterpreted form, so when
asked if Russia had conducted any new ICBM tests, the representative of
the Russian Strategic Missile Forces said that no new ICBMs had been tested
recently.

2002
Oct. 12:Russian
armed forces had a busy weekend on Saturday, October 12, 2002, conducting
the most extensive missile launching exercise in years. According to the
Russian media, the nation's submarines stationed in the Sea of Okhotsk
and the Barents Sea fired long-range missiles at the targets at Cape Kanin Nos in the Russia's northern regions and
at Kamchatka Peninsula, respectively. On
the same day, strategic bombers launched cruise missiles aimed at targets
beyond the polar circle and the Volga River region. To complete the picture,
the Topol ICBM flew a training mission from Plesetsk
to Kamchatka Peninsula.

2004 June
29: Russian Strategic Missile Forces, RVSN, test-fired an R-36M missile
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The flight aimed to certify the service life of such systems for a 20-year
period.

In
the meantime, the submarine Ekaterinburg (Dolphin Class, Project 667)
from the Russian Northern Fleet launched a D-9RM ballistic missile from
its underwater position in the Barenz Sea. The missile's warhead successfully
reached the Kura impact range on Kamchatka Peninsula.

On the same
day, a Tupolev-95MS strategic bomber conducted a training launch of a
long-range cruise missile. After takeoff from its base in the town of
Engels, Saratov Region, the aircraft covered around 3,000 kilometers before
releasing the missile. The weapon reportedly hit its target on the island
of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean.

2004
Dec. 24: Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov, attending the
launch of the Topol-M mobile ICBM from Plesetsk, said that during 2005,
Russian Air Force would recieve new long-range nuclear capable cruise
missiles.

2013 Oct. 5: Ships and submarines of the Russian Northern fleet fired eight cruise missiles at targets in the middle of the Barents Sea from 60 to 400 kilometers away. They included two Granit missiles launched from submerged Voronezh and Orel nuclear submarines. Another Granit missile was fired from the Peter the Great cruiser. During the same exercise, a strike force of the Russian navy launched four anti-ship missiles, including two Moskit missiles fired from the Admiral Ushakov battleship. Small missile-carrying Aisberg and Rassvet ships fired single Malakhit missiles each. Finally, a coastal defense deployed at the Rybachiy Peninsula fired a Redut tactical missile at a sea-based target, a semi-official Interfax news agency reported.

2014 May 8: During a major "command and control exercise" of the Russian armed forces, featuring multiple missile launches, a Tu-95 strategic bomber launched six cruise missiles, believed to be Kh-55. The official Russian sources only said that missiles were heading toward targets within the Western Military District. A 3M14 sea-based cruise missile was apparently also launched.